Andy Jans-Brown has unveiled the title track and accompanying video for Airport Departure Lounge, the forthcoming album due for release on 26 June 2026, marking the latest chapter in a career that has spanned music, film, theatre and poetry.
by Paul Cashmere
Australian singer-songwriter Andy Jans-Brown has released the new single and video ‘Airport Departure Lounge’, the title track from his forthcoming album of the same name, due on 26 June 2026. The song arrives with a self-edited video featuring contributions from Cameron Spike-Porter and Ben Wild, alongside hand-drawn animation created by Spike-Porter, offering an early glimpse into a project centred on themes of transition, loss and uncertainty.
The release positions Airport Departure Lounge as one of Jans-Brown’s most conceptually focused works to date. While the song functions as a standalone single, it also introduces the broader narrative that underpins the upcoming album. According to Jans-Brown, the project is framed around the metaphor of an airport waiting area, a place suspended between departure and arrival, where reflection often takes place against a backdrop of movement and impermanence.
In that sense, the record arrives at a time when many contemporary artists are exploring questions around identity, social change and personal dislocation. Airport Departure Lounge seeks to connect those concerns through an indie rock framework that balances introspective songwriting with broader observations about modern life.
Written by Andy Jans-Brown and Cameron Spike-Porter, the track was mixed by Spike-Porter and mastered by Jordan Power. The accompanying video extends the song’s cinematic ambitions, combining live footage with animation to reinforce the themes explored in the lyrics.
Jans-Brown describes Airport Departure Lounge as unfolding “like a film set in limbo”, populated by delayed departures, missed connections and moments of reflection. Across both the title track and the forthcoming album, he examines heartbreak, grief, disillusionment and mortality, while also addressing the endings of relationships, beliefs, ideals and inherited myths.
The broader album expands that thematic scope. Jans-Brown characterises the work as a meditation on suspension, examining what happens when familiar certainties begin to fade before new realities have fully emerged. Ideas surrounding ageing, sleep paralysis, technological anxiety and democratic decline are woven throughout the project, alongside moments of humour, melody and perspective.
The album continues a creative trajectory that has seen Jans-Brown work across multiple artistic disciplines over several decades. Based in Byron Bay, New South Wales, he has established a reputation as a musician, filmmaker, actor and poet, often combining those practices within a single body of work.
His recorded catalogue includes the double albums Letting Go! (2012), Sunshine Avenue (2014), Hell Is Light (2018) and Falling (2024). Airport Departure Lounge becomes his fifth major studio release and follows a period of renewed activity that has seen him continue developing projects across music and screen media.
Beyond his solo work, Jans-Brown has shared stages with artists including Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Phil Jamieson, Portugal. The Man and The Preatures. Earlier in his career he fronted the band Iris and achieved success through Triple J Unearthed, where the song ‘Dressed In A Woman’s Clothes’ reached the top of the indie chart.
His creative output has also extended to film. The feature-length Hell Is Light, released alongside the album of the same name in 2018, earned recognition on the international festival circuit, collecting awards including Best Film, Best Director and Best Original Soundtrack at the Pinnacle Film Awards. The film explored addiction and resilience within Northern New South Wales communities and reflected Jans-Brown’s ongoing interest in storytelling across multiple mediums.
Outside music and film, Jans-Brown has worked in theatre, community arts and youth programs. His collaborations have included projects with Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital, Berry Street and initiatives supporting communities affected by the Black Saturday bushfires. He has also contributed to programs designed to empower Indigenous youth through creative engagement.
The arrival of Airport Departure Lounge highlights a growing trend among independent Australian artists toward ambitious, cross-disciplinary projects that blur the boundaries between music, cinema and visual art. Jans-Brown’s latest work sits firmly within that tradition, drawing on his experience across several creative fields to build a larger narrative around the album.
With the title track now available and the full album scheduled for release later this week, Airport Departure Lounge represents both a continuation of Jans-Brown’s established themes and a new examination of life in a period of uncertainty. The project suggests an artist looking closely at the space between endings and beginnings, and finding stories within the wait.
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